Discussion thread on the future of the group desired

["Robert G. Brown" <bob@xxxxxxx>]

I'm sending this note to you guys before I distribute this to the entire
group.  Mostly, I'd like your comments before I take this further.

I picked you fellows because each of us has done more than show up at
meetings, we've all contributed something tangible to the group, such as 
presentations, donated bandwidth, hardware, skill, and so forth. Also,
I don't think any of us knew each other before this.

Please be honest, even brutally so. If you think this is a lot of pompous
nonsence, or it's out of touch with the group, say so.   Thanks.

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Since September, we've shown that there's a good deal of interest in 
Linux around the Kalamazoo area. We've moved from no meetings at all to
weekly meetings with good technical content, contact with a major vendor
(Red Hat), a mailing list, and a website.  We've raised our attendence
from nothing to about 10 per meeting and growing. With different people
showing up, we have over 20 people interested enough to be return visitors.
This was done with a few USENET postings, maybe a little talking around, and
darned little else. While doing this, we've helped a few people get started
with Linux, and provided more experienced hands with a place to find good
local support. 

We're a success!

Is this all we can do? All we want to do? Is there room for improvement?

The people in this group have a lot of skills, and we're starting to see 
what the possibilities are. There were 14 people at the last meeting at 
Cyber-tek; 5 of them were new members. This is good news, let's also re-
cognize that in order to offer more people a good group, we may have to
adjust some of our ways. What we adjust and how isn't up to any one per-
son, but there's a need to discuss these issues; they won't go away. Our 
change of meeting place (to P&U, see the website) and other events make
this clearer.

Sustaining and growing any volunteer group requires a bit more guidance
and coordination than is used right now for KLUG. Perhaps no one is in-
clined to do more, for any number of reasons. The possibilities for the
group remain high, and each of us may have something to gain by doing a
little to contribute to the health of the group.

  Some specific activities have been suggested in the past, I'll repost a
few of them here:

       - Technical presentations at meetings 
            A list of topics and some possible volunteers.
            (We can redistribute the topic list if deisred)
            Do we want to repeat any of these topics?
       - New meeting space P&U may be good, foor now; can we arrange
            a back-up site? 
       - Our web site -- Any improvements?
       - Posters and flyers -- getting word out about the group.
         Appearing at a computer show/sale with a demo booth.
       - Help and support for people -- is this working well?
       - Outreach to other group and merchants.
       - Building a co-op ISP.
       - Contributing to the Linux project.
       - Becoming a "real" (or legal) organization. We can really gain
         from this!

All of these ideas (and more! PLEASE contribute your own!) are possible
with a little organization, commitment and teamwork. Perhaps no one wants
very much in the way of organization; perhaps only a little is needed and
focus is called for. We can only go so far with well-meaning, but strictly
individual efforts.

Where can we go from here?
Well... Where do you want to go today?   (sorry, Bill)
We know we can get there!

If any of this sparks some thoughts, let's all share them.
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OK, that's the sort of thing I want to send out to everyone. 

Please fire away!

                                                         Regards,
                                                           ---> RGB <---